Is saving a parking space unethical or “unneighborly;” or is it “inconsiderate and selfish,” or is it just fine given the circumstances?

We received a comment from “Lakes” who said, “Friday eve, Bridgefest, got into town about 7:30 pm and got parking on Clark, only 12 blocks from our home on Lake Ave.“Saving spaces is very inconsiderate and selfish. Someone might park 8 feet away from a yellow line and then when their relative/friend comes, they jockey two cars into that spot. Bad neighbors!”

During the “season” in Ocean Grove, the residents of this town often find themselves without a parking space near their homes. Or they may come home from work only to find gridlock. Parking is often so tight that those who live here have a state of stress, having to decide if they can go to the grocery store, the movies or anywhere else at the risk of losing their space. Some parkers pull into a spot and never move, often days at a time. Studies show that parked cars remain there 95% of the time, never moving.

Because of the difficult parking situation, some folks try to rearrange their cars to save a space, usually for themselves or others, such as neighbors or visiting family. Sometimes neighbors conspire to rearrange cars, and sometimes cars are just sloppily parked.

Our parking spaces are often taken up by visitors of all stripes: Asburians who like the free parking, sightseers, beachgoers , shoppers, etc, and all at the expense of the residents.

One of my neighbors refers to the manipulation of cars to save spaces as “the parking games” which are played throughout town. None of those games, including putting a cone in a space, is illegal.

“Lakes” thinks that doing so is “selfish, inconsiderate and unneighborly.” Yet those of us who live here get stuck when crowding occurs and interlopers arrive, and the Township offers us no special consideration—in fact they make things worse by allowing development without requiring parking (As they do require in A. Park.)

Mary’s Place is a fine and popular organization, but they were allowed to build this with questionable zoning and without requiring any off-street parking. That is a violation of State Land Use Laws (RSIS) and it makes things difficult for parking in that neighborhood. We heard from some there in that hood.

We the people who maintain our homes and pay Township taxes are the ones who inhabit this town all year and yet we are sitting ducks for anybody who comes into town and sucks up a valuable parking space.

Of course it is not illegal to park here, but shouldn’t the residents get some advantage in this situation? Moving cars around to save a spot seems like one solution.

Personally, we decided not to do it because it seemed questionable. After all, if someone saves a space, it might deprive another neighbor of a space. But after the progressively worsening parking situation around here, it now seems more and more reasonable and acceptable to gain a small advantage.

In fact, the concept of saving spaces should be adopted town-wide in the form of permit parking. There should be one saved spot for every house in town—that would be over one thousand, but it would not subtract that many spots since the residents have to park somewhere.

It is an attempt to offer a measure of convenience and comfort to our citizens. And convenience, peace of mind and life style enhancement is about more that just where to stick your car. And that’s why we keep on talking about parking.

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13 Responses

I’m so glad you’re continually illustrating the negative effects of the parking situation on everyday life. Why should anyone have to think twice about jumping into the car to run a quick errand? Why should a person with painful arthritic knees have to walk 12 blocks to his or her front door? How do you unload your groceries when you’re parked half a mile away? You’re right that this creates a constant source of stress for residents. The Township needs to recognize this and make it possible for residents to park near their homes. I think homeowners are entitled to this basic convenience.

A resident parking permit does not insure a parking place near your home but would certainly would certainly be an improvement.
Other cities have this assistance for residents & seems to work well – however, it requires enforcement to be successful & I understand Neptune Twp officials do not want it.
Once again, we in OG are treated like the
“step children” even though we are Neptune’s “cash cow”.
Regarding residents putting out cones to save a space, it may not be illegal but it is selfish & inconsiderate. It is also not illegal to remove the cone to park in the spot.

Marty. Most people are too intimidated or unsure of the law to remove the cone. But Marty, what about the car shuffle game? Is that also “inconsiderate and selfish?”

And by the way, do those of you who find your neighbors to be ethically or neighborly challenged for wanting to save a space, do you think that coming here to park and then walk over to Asbury for the night or the weekend or more gets any sort of moral condemnation? Every one of those Asburian parkers deprives Grovers of yet another place to park near their homes.

“Parking big” is what I’ve heard it called. I don’t have a moral dilemma with that, although I’ve never done it, but there would be maybe 25% more parking spots if only 10% of the parkers actually knew how to parallel park without leaving 6 feet in front and rear of their vehicle unintentionally.

I see this constantly, and it starts with the person who leaves a half car length between their front bumper and “:the box”.

Maybe if the town striped out the streets like in say, Avon, so folks could judge where their car should be.

And this past Friday night I returned home at 6 pm and just gave up and parked in the box in front of my residence, hoping that I didn’t get a summons and kept an eye out. That way after 10 pm when the tide of cars went back out, I was able to get back in the car and legally park. Saturday afternoon, when I returned from work, I was lucky to only have a 3 block walk.

Editor’s note: John–Wishing for better parallel parkers won’t help. But, the ultimate answer will be when we have cars that drive themselves. They will solve today’s parking problems, because they don’t have to be parked near where you are. They can find a spot and park just right.

All of these letters are amusing, but will everyone still think so, when one hot night, one angry neighbor causes violence on another neighbor or visitor over a lost parking space? This is what may happen brought on by the illegal actions of Neptune’s boards.

Members of Neptune’s boards and attorney’s may think they are being clever with granting condo variances without providing parking as required by law, but possible violence is what it is leading up to, and when it happens, you can lay the damage at the feet of the Township committee and board members.

Kevin, the Neptune leaders will not be held responsible for anything. Look at the latest fire, pretty much totally the fault of the township (abandoned buildings allowed to decay, no security on site, no inspections, faulty zoning…) but it looks like they got away with it again! Money talks! If you’re a developer bringing in tax $$, everything is allowed!

We have used the “parking big” technique but only because our neighbors host dozens of out of town guests that rudely take up all the parking spots on our block. I don’t feel that out of town guests have any right to the parking spot in front of the home I own and pay taxes on.

The usual concept behind a resident permit program is to make spaces available to permit holders around town. This will offer a resident a space held for that purpose although it may or may not be available very close to one’s house. A resident also can compete for non-permit spaces. The net effect is that there will be no significant decrease in total spaces. The details would be discussed if the Township ever deigns to bring in a consultant to look at this. The Township’s resistance to this concept is suspicious. What is its reason to be against this plan? Perhaps a letter writing. emailing or phoning campaign organized by the Groaners would wake them up.